All disabled students have the right to education on an equal basis with others, with reasonable accommodations and individualized supports. This page centers disabled people's expertise to help educators create genuinely inclusive learning environments that go beyond minimum legal compliance.
Disabled students are routinely underestimated, segregated, and denied access to grade-level curriculum. They experience higher rates of suspension, expulsion, and restraint. They are disproportionately placed in restrictive settings away from non-disabled peers.
These outcomes are not inevitable—they result from systems designed without disabled input, deficit-based thinking, and lack of training. Educators who presume competence and design for access from the start can transform student outcomes.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides the foundation for accessible instruction. Developed by CAST, UDL is built on three principles:
Multiple Means of Engagement: Recruit interest and sustain effort through choice, relevance, and self-regulation support.
Multiple Means of Representation: Present information in varied formats—text, audio, video, graphics, hands-on materials.
Multiple Means of Action and Expression: Offer flexible ways to demonstrate learning—papers, presentations, portfolios, videos, verbal responses.
UDL isn't an accommodation for some students—it's better design benefiting everyone.
Implementation starts small:
Presume that every student can learn, communicate, and participate—then figure out how to make it possible. When uncertain about a student's abilities, assume competence: the consequences of underestimating someone are far more harmful than overestimating them.
This doesn't mean ignoring support needs. It means starting from the assumption that the student has thoughts, preferences, and potential—and that your job is to find ways to access them.
Curriculum access: Students should access grade-level content with supports rather than being relegated to "life skills" curricula based on disability labels alone.
Communication: If a student doesn't speak, assume they have things to say and provide alternative communication methods. Non-speaking does not mean non-thinking.
Behavior: Assume behavior is communication. Ask what the student might be trying to tell you before assuming defiance or manipulation.
Goals: The 2017 Endrew F. Supreme Court decision requires "appropriately ambitious" IEP goals. Disabled students deserve high expectations, not lowered bars.
IDEA's Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and Section 504 plans establish minimums, not goals. Compliance is the floor—best practice builds far above it.
Design curricula accessibly from the start rather than retrofitting accommodations after students request them. When accessibility is built in, students don't have to out themselves to access learning.
Teach self-advocacy skills early. Support students in understanding their own learning needs and directing their own planning meetings. Even young students can participate meaningfully in IEP discussions about their goals and preferences.
Traditional accommodation systems require students to prove their deficits through extensive medical documentation. This perpetuates a deviance model of disability. Student narratives about their experience constitute valid evidence of access needs.
The least restrictive environment (LRE) mandate means inclusion is the starting point, not something students must earn. Removal to more restrictive settings requires evidence that inclusion with supports was inadequate—not assumptions based on disability category.
Disabled students experience higher rates of trauma than non-disabled peers through:
Behaviors attributed to disability may actually be trauma responses.
Safety: Create predictable routines, clear expectations, and physically/emotionally safe spaces.
Relationships: Build genuine relationships before focusing on content. Trust comes first.
Regulation support: Teach and support emotional regulation rather than punishing dysregulation.
Avoid triggers: Learn individual students' triggers and proactively avoid them when possible.
Response over reaction: When behavior escalates, respond with curiosity and calm rather than punishment.
Teachers should recognize trauma without attempting to be therapists. Forcing students to process trauma without proper support can cause harm. Know when to refer to mental health professionals and how to access those resources for students.
Restraint and seclusion are traumatic, dangerous, and disproportionately used on disabled students and students of color. They are never educational interventions.
Best practice:
Disabled students hold multiple identities. Black disabled students face both racism and ableism. LGBTQ+ disabled students experience harassment related to multiple aspects of identity. Students in poverty face compounded access barriers. Immigrant students may have disability needs unidentified or misidentified.
Black students are significantly more likely to be identified as having intellectual disabilities or emotional disturbance—categories that lead to more restrictive placements. They are more likely to be suspended, expelled, and subjected to restraint and seclusion.
This is not about Black students having more disabilities. It's about racist systems producing discriminatory outcomes.
DisCrit (Disability Critical Race Theory) provides frameworks for examining how racism and ableism intersect in educational settings.
The pandemic proved institutions could implement flexible accommodations—remote options, recorded lectures, asynchronous participation—previously denied to disabled students as "unreasonable." When everyone needed flexibility, it suddenly became possible.
Best practice means maintaining pandemic-era flexibilities permanently:
Many students now have Long COVID—a disabling condition that may involve fatigue, cognitive difficulties ("brain fog"), and unpredictable symptom fluctuation. These students need accommodations even if they didn't previously have disabilities.
Families know their children. They have expertise that professionals lack. Partnership means genuine collaboration, not informing families of decisions already made.
Different cultures understand disability differently. Some families may not use disability language or may have concerns about labels. Meet families where they are while ensuring students receive needed supports.
Provide interpreters for families who use sign language or speak languages other than English. Ensure all written communication is accessible and translated as needed. Schedule meetings at times that work for working families.
Listen to family concerns. They may be seeing something you're missing. If disagreement continues, explore mediation before adversarial processes. Remember that families are advocating for their children—assume good intent.
One training is not enough. Disability competency requires ongoing learning, reflection, and skill-building.
The best professional development comes from disabled people themselves—disabled educators, self-advocates, disability studies scholars. Seek out training led by disabled people rather than only about disabled people.
Organizations:
Books:
Online:
| Instead of... | Try... |
|---|---|
| "He can't do grade-level work" | "What supports would help him access grade-level content?" |
| Assuming behavior is willful defiance | Asking "What is this behavior communicating?" |
| Requiring documentation before accommodations | Believing students about their access needs |
| Segregated placements as default | Inclusion with supports as starting point |
| Praising basic task completion | Holding high expectations with appropriate support |
| Speaking to aides instead of students | Direct communication with students |
| One-size-fits-all instruction | UDL principles built into design |
| Treating accommodations as unfair advantages | Recognizing accommodations as access |
This page centers disabled people's expertise and is informed by disabled-led organizing globally. For questions or to suggest additions, see How to Contribute.